Concrete piles are used to construct foundations for various structures, such as buildings and bridges. The piles are typically cast in a pre-stressed manner, lifted by a crane, and driven into the ground using a drop hammer. In some cases, a pile of the necessary length may be too long and heavy to be lifted by a crane. In such circumstances, a first, shorter pile segment can be driven into the ground and a second pile segment can be spliced to the first pile segment to form a spliced pile having the desired length. The spliced pile can then be driven into the ground in the typical manner.
There are currently several mechanical splices available that are designed to splice pre-stressed pile segments together. While such splices are designed to securely connect the pile segments to each other, the location at which the splices attach to the pile segments are the weakest points of the segments. Specifically, the splices attach to the ends of the pile segments in the “transition zones” at which there is very little pre-stress in the concrete. Although mechanical splices typically comprise reinforcement (e.g., rebar) that is embedded in the ends of the pile segments, this reinforcement is not enough to compensate for the lack of pre-stressing. Because of this, the region of the splice is relatively weak and can only withstand a limited amount of tensile stress during driving. Therefore, the spliced pile cannot be driven with the same force as can a non-spliced pile.
From the above discussion, it can be appreciated that it would be desirable to have a system and method for splicing pile segments that can be used to form spliced piles that can withstand greater forces.